Beef prices may be at historic highs, but that hasn’t kept steakhouses and butcher shops from trending. And now, the Baltimore suburbs are getting a piece of the action.

Harford County will soon have two new spots to up your iron intake, with the arrival of a steakhouse in Havre de Grace from the owners of Geresbeck’s Food Market, plus a second branch of John Brown General & Butchery opening in downtown Bel Air.

Butcher on the Bay

Opening in March in Havre de Grace, steakhouse Butcher on the Bay is an offshoot of Butcher & Bay, a specialty food shop in Kingsville from the owners of Geresbeck’s grocery stores.

Co-owner Justin Graham, whose grandfather Carl Greeley bought the grocery chain, said the idea for a restaurant came after his family opened the Kingsville market last spring. A friend who had experience in the hospitality business pitched him on the idea of a steakhouse.

The new restaurant will take the place of Abbey Burger at 226 N. Washington Street. The building itself, the Elizabeth Rodgers House, dates back to the 1700s and is the only property in Havre de Grace to survive the War of 1812.

“We were told that George Washington has been in the space multiple times,” Graham said, a history the new steakhouse intends to celebrate.

With a kitchen led by chef Ricky Foxwell, Butcher on the Bay’s menu will focus on beef, particularly meats from Monkton’s Roseda Farm. Customers can also expect to see some Chesapeake-inspired dishes, including crabs and invasive species like blue catfish and snakehead.

“We’ll do our small part to help the bay,” Graham said, with everything sourced locally. “We want to support smaller, local wholesalers.”

John Brown General & Butchery

Robert Voss will bring a second branch of his popular Cockeysville shop, John Brown General & Butchery, to downtown Bel Air starting Sept. 1. The new business will take the place of Boyd and Fulford pharmacy at 23 S. Main Street, which shuttered in 2019 after more than a century in business.

Voss said the store will be “our first attempt to re-create everything we did at” the business’s original location on Falls Road, combining market supplies and casual bites to take or eat on the premises. Unlike JBGB’s, Voss’ short-lived eatery in Baltimore’s Remington neighborhood, it won’t be a sit-down restaurant.

On the menu will be coffee and pastries as well as breakfast sandwiches. For lunch, expect the same burgers and fries, cold cut sandwiches and specials available at the Cockeysville branch. Down the line, Voss said, “dinner is a possibility,” and so is a second-floor cocktail lounge.

And of course, there will be steaks. “We are still a butcher shop first and foremost,” Voss said. Meats are sourced locally, and Voss encourages customers to explore cuts beyond the traditional rib-eye steak.

Voss, who lives in Harford County with his wife and two kids, said he was drawn to expand in the Bel Air area, where he grew up. “You get older and you start wanting to affect the community that you live in,” he said.